It's a dead-on review. Defender is an amazing, AMAZING toy. Well worth the $78. A far better investment of similar dollars than many of the very good SOCs out there. Quality is as high as any major toy manufacturer out there.

I'm also going to put in a good word, though OT slightly, for the Mastermind Creations Knight Morpher figure (the Hearts of Steel OP). No diecast and a bit more pricy than Defender, it's still a larger figure, and sports a very similar level of quality and workmanship as any of the Fansproject toys. I'm really looking forward to the supposed further additions to the line that they have planned.

And lastly, a shout out for Reprolabels, whose Autobot symbols look REALLY nice on said Defender and Knight Morpher. For anyone who thinks Defender looks a tad plain, it's because it's missing (intentionally) the faction symbols. Add these to the toy and bam! it looks right in line with the Classics stuff.

Well damn, it took me long enough but I finally got my hands on a Warbot defender. Like everyone else has already said, this thing is total quality. Springer was one of my favorite characters from G1 season 3 and its about time he got a new figure (even if it is unofficial). The best we keep getting from Hasbro are just repaints of other toys.

I gotta say...I don't really intend to buy this figure...BUT the execution on the sword is fucking phenomenal. Paper-thin, totally convincing look, folds out into rotor blades perfectly...and most importantly tough as nails.

The one way in which I think the sword could have been improved would have been a small flattish peg-and-hole connection to lock the blades together in sword mode. They're just thick enough for that. Even if you had to make the hole go all the way through the sword blade, most people are going to keep the toy in robot mode, not alt mode, so I would say the increase in sword stability would outweigh the slight imperfection in looks in helicopter mode.

"Girl robot" is a clear anti-fembotist construct imposed by gender equity insensitive robomales who subconsciously seek to devalue and trivialize the roles and contributions of female robots. Seeker and gestalt are completely racist.

Inwards had Warbot jammed into his Transformers shelf, and it looks great. I have no interest in the figure either, but man, these guys give Hasbro, and by default, Takara a run for their money. That Arrrrcee looks awesome.

I have fond memories of the playbility aspect in my younger youth. I think they could manage go more trigger happy on the articulation if they brought it back. Though, they were kind of like those plastic easter eggs.

@ VF5SS
I'm with Sanjeev (we seem to agree a lot lately), what was wrong with classics jetfire? I thought it was good intermediary between G1 cartoon Jetfire and G1 toy Jetfire.

Hmmm...while I think Rodimus Prime looks great, it doesn't quite "feel" like Rodimus Prime. I mean, he looks like a sweet, badass robot, but I think he seems a little too bulky/armored...when the original G1 look was slimmer, with simple and smooth lines. The trailer looks fucking awesome, though.

Andrew, is that an official Dirge, or a fan-made product (is that the PC term for "bootleg" now? ;) )? Looks bitchin'.